1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiuser dungeon in a network, and more particularly, to a method for processing a message in the multiuser dungeon operating on the network with multiple computer systems.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional multiuser dungeon operates in a server system 100 as shown in FIG. 1A. User computers 110, 112, 114, and 116 receive inputs from respective users, transmit the inputs to a server system 100, receive the result of an operation (i.e., a current situation) from the server system 100, and display the result on a screen. However, if a fast information exchange is not performed between the server system 100 and the user computers 110, 112, 114, and 116 when a multiuser dungeon is performed as shown in FIG. 1A, the multiuser dungeon cannot be correctly performed due to the time delay on the network.
To address this problem, the multiuser dungeon shown in FIG. 1B is used. Namely, the user computers 160, 162, 164, and 166 operate separate game programs and transmit a message including the contents of an event to other user computers through a network 150 only when a new event is generated.
The method for processing information in the multiuser dungeon shown in FIG. 1B will be described as follows, using a baseball game as an example. When a user computer 160 playing a role of a pitcher receives a command for pitching a ball from a user, the user computer 160 generates a new event message and transmits it to the other user computers 162, 164, and 166. Then, not only the user computer 160 playing a role of a pitcher but also the user computers 162, 164, and 166 which received the new event message calculate the trajectory of the pitched ball and display it on a screen. Therefore, a network traffic is reduced and the user computers 160, 162, 164, and 166 can trace the location of the pitched ball. At this time, the change of the locations of the respective players, the operations of the players, and the change in the trajectory of the ball are basic events.
When the above-described method is used in the system shown in FIG. 1B, invalid messages are occasionally generated due to the delay of time on the network, and thus transmitted to other user computers. For example, when the event of a hitter hitting a ball is delayed on the network, a catcher may catch the ball before receiving the event of the hitter hitting the ball, thereby generating an event that the hitter is struck out. Since the ball passing the hitter reaches the catcher in a very short time, it is very likely that such a situation is generated.